A
CURE IN ABOUT FIVE YEARSUnlike
today, persons with Diabetes didn't have the ability to check our own
blood sugars . Even with the difficulty that comes with keeping blood
sugar levels stable, the availability of glucose meters allowing Diabetics,
at
a moments notice, to
check our own blood sugar levels has
been had a revolutionary impact on my life.

Growing
up the only time I had my sugar levels checked came from my monthly visit
to my doctor. They were taken during the time of day when they were usually
at their highest. Since I always tested high, I
was prescribed a large dose of "long acting" insulin (one that
would work slowly, throughout the day). The reason that I always tested
high in the morning was because I experience a dramatic rise in blood
sugar around 4 AM brought on by the activation of hormones especially
if my blood sugar levels had dropped to low during the night, this phenomena
is called the "dawn effect" or "Somogyi". The exercise
from my newspaper route, that would normally would be a good thing for
my Diabetes, but would cause my hormones to rise even further and the
time spent on the long ride to the clinic caused them to rise higher still.
On normal mornings this would be the time I would be taking insulin, eating
breakfast and getting ready for school. The mornings I was tested however,
I would not have anything to eat to give a "fasting" baseline
result for the test. So in short, I was on way too much insulin causing
my blood sugars to fall low for hours on end. This wasn't due to anyone's
mismanagement or fault, It was just because the tools Diabetics needed
to properly regulate our blood sugars, hadn't been invented.

The
only thing available were strips that you would dip in a glass of urine,
if these would change color it meant that you had excessive sugar in your
body. There was nothing from the test that could tell you that you were
normal or low, even extremely low. The other problem with the tests
were that they represented an average of where your blood sugars had been
since you last urinated, for example you could have a meal, then afterward
your blood sugar levels would rise and then fall and be low for hours
later. Unfortunately your tests would include the one period when they
were high.

I
recorded my test results in a little note book that I would show my doctor
every visit, if my tests were consistently high, which they usually were,
he would increase my insulin dosage, and I knew that would lead to even
more episodes of falling into blood sugar lows and "zoning out"
in school. For at least somewhat accurate results it would be best
if would just empty myself of urinate, then drink some liquids and wait
around until I needed to, and then test.

Since
I was expected to do this at least four times a day I found a much easier
alternate method of rationalizing high test results by fudging
my numbers when I wrote them down. Since there were so many times
I would fall into a severe low even though I had just tested where
my results would be high. My log book therefore reflected more
my "opinion" of what my tests should be, or even "forgetting"
to enter particularly high tests.

I
had already started
holding back on the amount of insulin I would give myself, especially
if I knew that I was going to do something physical, today this adjustment
is called taking insulin on a "sliding scale" according to a
guesstimate of what dosage might be needed, but back then I simply thought
of it as cheating.

I
knew what I was doing was going against my doctors orders, but I also
knew that falling into perpetual blood sugar lows was pulling me further
from developing into a normal human being. I also resented going through
so much work for something that I knew was so inaccurate.
There was a time when I had an appointment with my doctor who had a substitute
filling in his place. This doctor took a look at my log book, he saw through
all my cheating when he commented on all of the blank spaces where I had
"forgotten" to write down tests. He looked me straight in the
eyes and in a stern voice said, "do you realize how serious
your Diabetes is and what it can do to you in the long run"? I knew,
I'd read all the literature, and I knew he was trying to scare me, but
I also sensed that he was speaking to me as one adult to another based
on his personal experience of treating too many patents, who had come
down with the complications of this disease.

When
I left his office, I didn't feel I needed to "try a little bit harder",
because I was trying as hard as I could, and it was turning me into an
antisocial freak. His truthful attitude rather than making me feel inspired,
made me feel simply, doomed.

With
personal blood testing meters, Diabetics can make accurate checks of their
glucose levels several times a day. The "convenience" of taking
large doses of long term insulin one or two times a day has been replaced
by taking four or five injections of short term insulin to cover meals
and much smaller doses of the long term to last throughout the day or
by the programming an insulin pump to release more insulin. The sad part
of all this is the huge expense of test strips. Even though these life-saving
supplies cost mere pennies to manufacture, they are unaffordable
for most of the people who need them, even in America and of course the
third world.